Government seizes/sells home of 93-year-old over $3200 tax bill; keeps proceeds

My family home was sold off for a 2,300 tax bill this past December in Poughkeepsie,NY. My elderly aunt had not received any letters in her name and was completely unaware. Through a system of tax lien sales the city removed all culpability for collections and private property rights. The house is valued at 220,000 and is completely paid off. Private investors in regions that still have tax lien sales buy up all tax liens and than hope for mistakes or financial difficulties so they can claim properties. This mostly impacts disadvantaged commmunities and makes up a beginning of the distressed property industry.

It is a market filled with bottom feeders and shadow corporations, I had to break through the contact details of 13 different corporations in order to discover the lien buyer, they never once contacted the official deed holders and attempted resale/bargain etc .. they just disappear the property through paperwork.

It is possible that we will recover the property due to due process errors, but that requires access and knowledge of the law that many who find themselves in this situation do not have. The traditional foreclosure process offers far more protection for homes with equity but can be a burden for those who are behind on tax/municipal payments and do not have the fine/fee funds so there is no perfect answer, but no answer should include government seizure of property without fair recompense. That is by definition unamerican.

The law that allowED this in Poughkeepsie was on the books from the late 1800's but was upheld as constitutional in the past.

There are a lot of very dark, very sad stories around this mechanism of govt.

Wow, thats as bad as property forfeiture laws. People who push these laws don't deserve to be in politics IMO.

The dark side of government. seems like the dark side of humanity.

Reading the case the precedent that this was constitution was set in a 1956 Supreme Court case which leaves the matter entirely up to the legislature.

What the article reported happened to 76 year old Bennie Coleman is worse. The article should continue to explain what they do to the physical person in that situation, but that would diminish the severity of their main issue.

While this is certainly terrible, it's extremely rare when compared with ordinary foreclosures by private lenders. Mortgage holders don't return the homeowner the difference if the property is later sold for more than the balance of the debt, either.

In Portugal they will do that for even 5€ of tax bills...